Our equivalent was Thomasland. We told ds 3yo at the time that we were going after Christmas, this was met by - when are we going?on a daily basis, and then how long until we get to Thomasland? in the car to the hotel, and then how long until it opens? From 6am until we got there....

YANBU! We went earlier this month with our 11yr old and 3 year old, it was the BEST day out ever, we stayed locally for a few days anyway but I would drive a good distance to get there, amazing family day out. Top tip get there early and stay late, we q'd for everything (no longer than 15-20mins in the morning) but come 4pm lots of little ones were knackered and went home, we gave ours a sugar rush and stayed til it closed, we could then literally walk straight onto the rides, very good value for money too.

We planned to go to Legoland which is a similar trip for us. What we did was planned a road trip round it. So we drove 5 hours to Alton towers. 2 hours to Leicester 3 days later and had 2 nights in the travel lodge and did Leicester and Cadbury's world and then left Leicester at 7am to get to Legoland. We then had 2 days in London too. We drove all the way right up in 7 hours from Slough which was better than we had planned but we all had a ball and really enjoyed ourselves. It didn't cost that much to be honest compared to staying in accommodation for a whole week and it was fine.

If your kids are used to sitting in the car then it may well be fine for you.

Hubby only has from 8:15pm thurs night until 12:15 mon morning off. I was thinking about camping as we camp quite a lot but then I found a good deal on a premier inn room and after all that driving/theme park excitement I think I'll want a proper bed.

My parents used to drive at night when we were little so def something to consider.